The present disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for conducting building energy use benchmarking.
Many commercial buildings today are equipped with a variety of energy-consuming devices. For example, a commercial building may be equipped with various heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) devices that consume energy to regulate the temperature in the building. Other exemplary types of building equipment that consume energy may include lighting fixtures, security equipment, data networking infrastructure, and other such equipment.
The energy efficiency of commercial buildings has become an area of interest in recent years. In many areas of the world, electrical generation and transmission assets have or are reaching full capacity. Because commercial buildings consume a good portion of the generated electricity in the United States and elsewhere, a major strategy for solving energy grid problems is to implement energy conservation measures (ECMs) within buildings. ECMs may also provide a financial benefit to the operator of a building, since the cost for the building's energy consumption can be reduced by implementing ECMs.
In general, ECMs involve first identifying potential areas of improvement and then taking the appropriate corrective measures. For example, the energy consumption of a building's lighting may be identified as a potential area of improvement and energy-efficient lighting may be installed in the building as an ECM. To identify potential areas of improvement, various metrics may be obtained regarding the building's energy consumption. For example, the building's energy consumption, typically measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh), or the building's energy demand, typically measured in kilowatts (kW), may be recorded and analyzed to identify trends and patterns in the building's energy use. A technician trained to analyze such data may then review the metrics for the building and suggest the implementation of one or more ECMs.
It is challenging and difficult to analyze the impact of ECMs in a building.